Hurricane Lester (3390)
Hurricane Lester of 3390 was the most destructive and strongest hurricane on record in 90 years. It caused a total of over 63,000 deaths and over $750 billion dollars in damage, as well as the lowest pressure in 120 years. Meteorological History On September 5, NHC was monitoring an area of robust convection east of the Lesser Antilles. Recon was sent out to investigate and found weak TS winds and a closed circulation and NHC began issuing advisories on the newly formed TS Lester. On September 8, Tropical storm Lester strengthened to a category 1, then 2, then 3, then eventually 5 after it passed the Lesser Antilles as a category 4 hurricane, causing lots of damage and killing 12 people. Then it got worse. On September 9, Hurricane Lester was already at category 5 status, as it passed south of several of the big Islands. On the 11th, Lester began to turn northwest towards Cuba. By 1800 UTC on the 11th, Hurricane Lester had strengthened to 200 mph, causing massive evacuations of the whole western part of Cuba. During that time before landfall, a Recon plane was almost destroyed by a nearly 340 mph wind gust. Dropsonde measurements recorded a minimum central pressure of 898, and surface winds of 205 mph. Then, on September 12 at 0800 UTC, Lester made landfall, devastating western Cuba; a 280 mph wind gust was recorded by a weather station and a webcam nearby captured the whole building being flattened during that gust, Lester had already killed over 5000 people and extreme winds leveled entire structures. Hurricane Lester grew exponentially in size, and from the western rainbands to the eastern rainbands nearly 1000 miles in size. On the 14th of September, after passing through Cuba and exiting still as a category 5 hurricane with winds of 175 mph, NHC began issuing hurricane warnings all the way from Houston, Texas to Tallahassee, Florida and 3 states declared state of emergencies. On the 15th, Lester was aiming for New Orleans. There, New Orleans was already picking up hurricane force gusts, storm surge of 9 feet was already occurring even though the storm was nearly 400 miles south, or just about 200 miles northeast of Cancun, Mexico. At 1200 UTC on September 15, now at peak intensity, hurricane Lester neared New Orleans with 220 mph sustained 10-min winds and an eye nearly the size of 55 miles. Now, at 4 PM EST, hurricane Lester was only 60 miles away, and the eye was already touching New Orleans. Shortly before the eye started going over New Orleans, a nearly 310 mph wind gust was reported before a whole neighborhood was flattened. at 5:30 PM CDT, hurricane Lester made landfall at peak intensity. One witness described the landfall. "Ferocious El Reno tornado equivalent wind gusts was roaring outside like a train going 100 mph over our storm shelter. The next thing we knew was a sudden silence after a minute or two. I went outside and the sun was out. But there was a giant wall of clouds circular in shape that extended high into the sky. We were in the eye. Winds were still about 30 mph, but we falsely enjoyed the clearing for half an hour. Then all hell broke loose." at about 6:30 PM CDT, Lester started to weaken, and by 8 PM the max winds calmed down slightly to 190 mph. Impacts Hurricane Lester as it went over 2 states while still at category 5 strength, leveled multiple neighborhoods and an entire city of 6000 people were wiped out. Lester caused over 33,000 deaths in the city of New Orleans, and thousands more eventually died of starvation or no power. Hurricane Lester then rapidly weakened to a tropical storm, before exiting the NC coast with max sustained winds of 50 mph. On the 19th, Lester re-attained hurricane status but a secondary peak of 100 mph after making a loop back towards the Delaware and New Jersey coastline. The NE coast then prepared for a category 1 hurricane landfall. On the 20th, Lester made a second landfall south of NYC, causing an additional $540 million dollars in damage and an additional 40 people killed. There were about 63,000 deaths attributed to Lester, but many were in Cuba. About 33,000 people were killed in Cuba, an additional 30,000 people killed in New Orleans, and about 50 in the Lesser Antilles. By the second landfall, Lester was larger than Sandy of 2012, with a max TS Force wind radius from central Ohio to southern Maine and NC. In damages, hurricane Lester destroyed more than $750 billion dollars in damage. Lester turned extratropical and dissipated on the 22nd of September. Category:Atlantic hurricanes Category:Category 5 hurricanes Category:Deadly storms Category:Destructive storms Category:Unrealistic storms Category:Extremely powerful storms Category:TheHurricaneGod